Educational Inequality Faced By School Age Children With Disability In The UK

Policy and Legislation in the UK

Topic: Educational Inequality faced by School Age Children with Disability in the UK.

It is believed, that many children with disabilities and their families are most likely to face significant challenges throughout their journey in education, particularly, in countries with cultural beliefs, attitudes and values that may affect negatively on accesses to education for children living with disabilities (Cortiella and Horowitz 2014).

In the United Kingdom (UK), Section 20 of the Children and Families Act 2014, gives the guidelines for the Special Educational Needs (SEN) of children with learning difficulty or disability (Keslair, Maurin and McNally 2012). Also, the Equality Act of 2010, makes discrimination on the basis of disability a criminal offence (Keslair, Maurin and McNally 2012). Several factors were responsible for bringing about these changes in the process of education for the children with disabilities. The first factor was the growing social awareness as regards the treatment meted out to the people with disabilities (Alquraini and Gut 2012). In the earlier times, the people with learning disabilities were looked down upon by the society and therefore they had to undergo a lot of social stigma (Mueller et al. 2012). However, this outlook has changed drastically over the years because of the studies conducted by various researchers and others have helped in changing the outlook of the people. The increasing amount of research, which is being conducted in the concerned field and the amount of funding that is made available for the conduct of the research is also instrumental for the change in the policies, laws as well as the procedures in the concerned field over the past 10 years (Munyi 2012). The influence of the children literature in the field of creating awareness for the school-aged children with learning disability is also very important and needs to be taken into consideration (Kurtts and Gavigan 2017).

Majority of the students with learning disabilities in the various educational institution of the UK face bias on the basis of their learning disability. To prevent this, the UK government enacted the Equality Act 2010, where bias against the people with special learning abilities was made a criminal offence, thereby guaranteeing the school-aged children the right to equal education (Cortiella and Horowitz 2014). The UN Universal Declaration on Human Rights as well as the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which were ratified by the UK government in the year 2009 intends to provide equal educational opportunities to all children including the ones with special learning abilities (Cortiella and Horowitz 2014). According to a study, conducted by the World Bank, providing equal educational as well as job opportunities to the people with learning disabilities can reduce the amount spent by the government on the relief funds for the people with special abilities by 32% (Cortiella and Horowitz 2014).

Impact of Changes in Policy and Practice

The above researches as well as the theories and other factors have helped to reduce the amount of discrimination faced by the school-aged children with learning disability (Watson 2012). They, as a matter of fact, have also helped in the reduction of the inequalities faced by the school-aged children with learning disability.

The most important effect of all these different policies as well as the international acts pertaining to the education of the school-aged children with learning disability is the amount of opportunity that is being provided to the people with special learning abilities. For example, the Part 2 of the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2002, which amends the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, prohibits all forms of discrimination against the school-aged children with learning disability in the field of education as well as its related services (Cortiella and Horowitz 2014). The net result of all this is reduction in the amount of discrimination faced by the people with special learning abilities (Cortiella and Horowitz 2014). The other effects of the recent changes in the policies as well as the different acts of the government are-

• The various research projects carried out by many researchers and others have helped in empowering and boosting the confidence level of the people with learning disabilities (Jingree and Finlay 2012). The researches carried out these national as well as private organizations have provided various relevant statistics as well as results that have increased the consciousness of the general public towards the school-aged children with learning disability (Jingree and Finlay2012). This research intended to highlight the fact that the school-aged children with learning disability and the people with learning disability should be empowered by their parents. In addition, disabled people are experts on their lives with relevant historical knowledge, viewpoints as well as skills to contribute.  
• The new policies have also become successful in increasing the amount of job opportunities that are available to the people with learning disabilities. According to a report, in the year 2006 only 11 % of the disabled people had access to paid jobs and that too, of the part time nature, whereas in the year 2016 around 46.5 % of the disabled people have access to jobs and that too, of fulltime nature (Mitra 2006). Thus, with the increasing employment rate of the people with learning disability there is a growing focus on the education of the school-aged children with learning disability.
• The new policies have also helped in increasing the educational opportunities that are available to the people with learning disability. The various acts of the government like the Children’s Act 1989, the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001,the Mental Capacity Act 2005,the Health and Social Care Act 2008,the Children and Families Bill of 2013 and various others have been instrumental in the improvement of the school level as well as the higher educational options that are now available to the students with special learning abilities (Squires 2012).These acts have been instrumental in removing a part of the bias faced by the school-aged children with learning disability as well as providing them with equal opportunities on par with the other children.

The local policies of UK had a significant effect on the remodelling of the educational structure for the children with learning disability (Emerson and Glover 2012). The “Tower Hamlets Health and Well-Being Strategy” was adopted by the UK government in a bid to improve the health as well as the well-being among all the stages of life so as reduce the inequalities faced by the people and also to create equal opportunities for them (Democracy.towerhamlets.gov.uk 2018). The “Tower Hamlets Children and Families Plan 2012-2015” intended to extend the dream of the government to provide a safe as well healthy environment to its citizens (Democracy.towerhamlets.gov.uk 2018). These policies were very helpful in removing the prejudices regarding the people with learning disabilities and also paved the way for the creation of equal opportunities for them in the field of education as well as occupation (Cortiella and Horowitz 2014).

Conclusion

Therefore, from the above discussion it becomes clear that the new policies as well as the new governmental rules and regulations have reduced much of the inequality faced by the school-aged children with learning disability especially in the field of education. However, much work still needs to be done in the field to make the people with learning disabilities on a par with the non-disabled people. Therefore, remedial measures needs to be taken by the governmental as well as the private organizations in order to provide the people with learning disabilities the same kinds of opportunities as enjoyed by the non-disabled people.

Reducing Educational Inequality

In order to provide the people with learning disabilities with equal opportunities on a par with non-disabled people the governmental as well as the private organizations can increase the amount of funding as well as the research work that is done in the relevant field. The authorities can also come up with some reservation policies so as to provide equal representation to the people with learning disabilities with equal opportunities on par with the non-disabled people in the field of education. Special educational institutions especially for the people with learning disability can be created by the authorities in a bid to reduce the level of competition faced by the school-aged children with learning disabilities.

References

Alquraini, T. and Gut, D., 2012. Critical components of successful inclusion of students with severe disabilities: Literature review. International Journal of Special Education, 27(1), pp.42-59.

Cortiella, C. and Horowitz, S.H., 2014. The state of learning disabilities: Facts, trends and emerging issues. New York: National Center for Learning Disabilities.

Democracy.towerhamlets.gov.uk. 2018. [online] Available at: https://democracy.towerhamlets.gov.uk/documents/s83931/HWB%20Strategy%202.pdf [Accessed 2 Jan. 2018].

Emerson, E. and Glover, G., 2012. The “transition cliff” in the administrative prevalence of learning disabilities in England. Tizard Learning Disability Review, 17(3), pp.139-143.

Jingree, T. and Finlay, W.M.L., 2012. ‘It’s got so politically correct now’: parents’ talk about empowering individuals with learning disabilities. Sociology of health & illness, 34(3), pp.412-428.

Keslair, F., Maurin, E. and McNally, S., 2012. Every child matters? An evaluation of “Special Educational Needs” programmes in England. Economics of education review, 31(6), pp.932-948.

Kurtts, S.A. and Gavigan, K.W., 2017. Understanding (dis) abilities through children’s literature. Education Libraries, 31(1), pp.23-31.

Mitra, S., 2006. The capability approach and disability. Journal of disability policy studies, 16(4), pp.236-247.

 Mock, M. and Love, K., 2012. One state’s initiative to increase access to higher education for people with intellectual disabilities. Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities, 9(4), pp.289-297.

Mueller, A.K., Fuermaier, A.B., Koerts, J. and Tucha, L., 2012. Stigma in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. ADHD Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorders, 4(3), pp.101-114.

Munyi, C.W., 2012. Past and present perceptions towards disability: A historical perspective. Disability Studies Quarterly, 32(2).

Roberts, A., Greenhill, B., Talbot, A. and Cuzak, M., 2012. ‘Standing up for my human rights’: a group’s journey beyond consultation towards co?production. British Journal of Learning Disabilities, 40(4), pp.292-301.

Squires, G., 2012. Historical and socio-political agendas around defining and including children with special educational needs. Contemporary issues in special educational needs: Considering the whole child, 27, pp.469-481.

Swanson, H.L. and Harris, K.R. eds., 2013. Handbook of learning disabilities. Guilford Press.

Watson, N., 2012. Theorising the lives of disabled children: How can disability theory help?. Children & Society, 26(3), pp.192-202.